Sue: If they hadn't dug her up, she'd be rolling in her grave
Written: Feb 12 '01 (Updated Mar 03 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well-researched; easily understood
Cons: No pictures; often rambles into history of paleontology
The Bottom Line: Fascinating story of the politics and egos in the world of paleontology
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| gracef's Full Review: Steve Fiffer - Tyrannosaurus Sue |
The annals of paleontology are fraught with stories of personal battles, politics, and egos. Sir Richard Owen spent years trying to best Charles Darwin after his Darwin, his former friend, published “On the Origin of Species” and took the limelight away from Owen. Later, O. C. Marsh and Edwin Drinker Cope spent years trying to be the most successful dinosaur hunter of the late 1800’s. Their bitter rivalry, commonly known as the Great Bone Wars, is now legendary. The most recent and what will most likely be the story most remembered from this era, is that of the tyrannosaurus Sue.
In his book Tyrannosaurus Sue: The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found, Steve Piffer tells a story that has all of the elements of a John Grisham novel. It has the big government, the poor “little guy”, egomaniacal lawyers and scientists, and a press-machine that is way out of control. The story is compelling and frightening, because, unlike a Grisham novel, it’s all true.
Piffer takes the story and carefully presents it so that the reader understands the characters and at least some of their motivations.
The T. Rex, Sue
Those who are not fans of paleontology or who did not read my review of the dreadful children’s book A Field Mouse and a Dinosaur named Sue may not have heard of what may arguably be the most famous fossil of all time. Up until the discovery of Sue, only 11 other T. Rex fossils had been located. A fossil skeleton is considered scientifically significant if at least 10% of it is found. Of the 11 other T. Rex, only 1 was over 50% complete. Sue was well over 90% complete. The most significant part of the fossil, the head, was totally complete.
Maurice Williams
Maurice Williams is a Native American rancher who owned the land where Sue was discovered. He gave permission to excavate Sue from his land and later accepted a $5000 check for the skeleton. Later, after realizing the significance and value of the fossil, he claimed that he assumed that the payment was only for the use of his land and not for the dinosaur.
Peter and Neal Larson, the Black Hills Institute, etc.
The Black Hill Institute is a commercial collecting business. Museums often cannot afford to employ paleontologists full-time, because there is often no guarantee that a dig will result in a successful find. The Larson brothers saw the Black Hills Institute as a way to provide a necessary service to museums throughout the world. By 1990, the year of Sue’s discovery, they had established their business, despite the fact that neither held doctorates in paleontology. While they often made purchases from independent or amateur fossil hunters, the Larsons considered Sue their baby. They planned on making her the centerpiece of scientific research and exhibition at the South Dakota facility. As with many of their deals, their deal with Maurice Williams was verbal.
Big Government
Unbeknownst to the Larsons, the FBI was investigating the Black Hills Institute and the Larsons for a number of crimes, including the trafficking of stolen fossils and various customs violations. The government was in a pinch. Fossils were being collected from public lands and sold to private collectors or museums in other countries. While a number of companies and individuals were doing it, the government felt the need to make an example of someone. The lucky target was the Larson brothers.
Led by a U. S. attorney Kevin Schieffer, the government seized Sue and a large number of records from the Larsons. It spent the next 5 years (and millions of taxpayer dollars) battling for convictions.
Assorted players
To further complicate the situation, there were other players involved that only complicated matters further. Williams’ land is part of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation; therefore, the tribe felt like they were Sue’s rightful owners. They wanted the fossil so that they could open a museum and bring commerce to the reservation. The people of Hill City, the town where the Black Hills institute is located, had similar ideas for their own town; therefore, they felt that they had a vested interest in helping the Black Hills Institute win Sue. In addition, some members of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology believed that anyone who did not hold a doctorate should not have any claim or access to the fossil.
The Story
Tyrannosaurus Sue tells the story of how these characters spent years battling over this one dinosaur. The author does his best to be an impartial observer and recount the available facts. The story is engrossing and occasionally outrageous. It is a tale that has to be read to be fully appreciated and believed.
While I knew much of the information from newspaper and magazine reports, I was able to understand the situation much better with it presented in such an organized format. Piffer works through the reports in mostly chronological order, including names, places, and quotes from the parties involved. Piffer users his legal background to further explain some of the reasons for the actions of these parties and breaks down the legalese into terms that are easily understood by laypersons.
The only weakness in this book is that it does, at times, ramble too much into the history of paleontology. At one point where the story was picking up speed, Piffer digressed into a 10-page history of the Great Bone Wars. While thoroughly interesting to dino-enthusiasts such as myself, it may cause the story to drag for those who are only casually interested.
Admittedly, Piffer has certainly done his homework here. He seems to have had much support from Robert T. Bakker, Ph.D., a preeminent paleontologist who has worked with Steven Spielberg on Jurassic Park and who has written numerous books, both non-fiction and fiction. Bakker wrote the foreword for this book and prepares the reader with the reasons why the story of Sue is so important. He also provides numerous quotes throughout the book that are thought-provoking and/or entertaining. Bakker’s presence is so significant in the book that I was often left wondering if Piffer guaranteed him a certain number of references in the book or if the story was really being told from Bakker’s perspective. In any event, Bakker is a credible source and is quick to point out that many of his fellow scientists are being fairly narrow-minded where companies like the Black Hills Institute is concerned.
As the story unfolds, a number of issues become clear. The biggest is that there were really few "good guys" involved. Most of the people wanted to win Sue because of greed. Williams played the "poor Indian" act to the hilt by saying that the Black Hills Institute was trying to rob him and then reclaiming possession. Once he got it, his only concern was how to make the most money from it. He had no interest in scientific discovery or in the good that the fossil could do for the people in his community. Piffer’s disapproval of Williams rings through almost every page. Perhaps it tainted my opinion of Williams because, though I knew something of him from newspaper accounts, I walked away from this book just wanting to smack Williams.
It is also clear that major changes are needed in the laws of the United States to insure that fossils such as Sue are available to museums and scientists for study. Williams and many other landowners like him care only about the money that these treasures can bring. Through the efforts of The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Disney, and McDonalds, Sue was lucky enough to find a home where scientific research is possible. (The consortium paid an astronomical sum of $8.36 million dollars for Sue!) However, this may not always be the case. As Piffer points out, one has visions of the scene at the end of Indiana Jones, where the Ark of the Covenant is wheeled into a huge warehouse and left there… just another in a vast collection of trinkets of a government or the rich. However, developing such laws is complicated, since the U.S. has a long tradition of at least pretending not to dictate what one does with his or her own property.
I highly recommend this book. It is as interesting as any Grisham novel that I’ve read. This book does not include any pictures, but it is loaded with facts and analysis. I am sure that this story will go down in history as one of the most remarkable in the history of paleontology.
Author’s Note:
This review was written to celebrate Darwin Day! For reviews of more science-related books by other Epinions members, refer to:
http://www.epinionaddicts.com/writeoffs/darwin2000/index.htm
Recommended:
Yes
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